The day this blog uploads, Wednesday, is my beloved husband Gary’s birthday. Friday is the birthday of book 3 in the Portal Watchers, Wrestle the Stars. Therefore, I’d like to focus on how we honor the births in our lives.

Birthdays are generally joyous occasions, especially when we’re honoring someone we care about. However, if the day belongs to someone no longer in our lives through life veer-offs or death, the day can be uncomfortable, sad, or painful.

A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. John 16:21

Any parent knows that as far as human births go, some are almost impossibly hard and some are too easy to be believed. According to family lore, one of my female ancestors didn’t even realize she was pregnant until she went into labor. And that pain that felt more like indigestion than birthing reputedly lasted less than an hour. That, I can’t imagine. But then I know people who have had long and extended labor sometimes lasting days and ending in a painful or difficult C-section.

I was fortunate enough to experience somewhere in between the two extremes.

Books have their own birthing stories.

The first of the Portal Watchers went from idea to completed rough draft in about six months. The second was a little over a year.

This book? This third book? It took me nearly twenty years to finish.

The reasons for its difficult birthing were myriad.

Not long after I completed book one, then titled Pterosaur or Pterosaur Rescue after its featured dinosaur, it won a contest and I acquired an agent. In the thrill of those steps, I completed book two which then also won an award.

Then my agent dropped me. Readers of the early chapters of book 3 called it confusing. My ego, self-esteem, and belief that this story could do anything at all plummeted.

I shelved it for about a year.

Then some teens who had read one and/or two asked me where the third book was. I pulled it out, dusted it off, and began adding to it again.

“You have too many characters,” said a couple people in my critique group. “There’s too much going on. There are too many locations.”

I felt like pulling my hair. (I probably did. Thankfully, God gave me a lot of it.) I had some basic things that needed doing in this book. I had characters who would reoccur and had to be introduced here. I don’t outline, per se, but make notes about where things should go. I put it away again. Every once in a while, I would add a bit to the end or create more prophecy. But it mostly went nowhere.

Then, a few years ago, my lovely publisher offered a contract for the series. The stipulation was that the entire series be written before any of them were published.

I figuratively tied myself to the computer until this book finally had its draft born. That was hard enough. But it still didn’t work as well as it should. Thanks to advice from Lindele, a favorite reader and dear friend, and Lisa, my editor, we combined scenes and characters. Upped the tension in some places and took out passages that simply didn’t build the story.

It was painful. But the book child finally came to be. And with that one completed, the rest of the series came to fruition fairly quickly.

 The critical characters were on the stage. Some events changed in the process and set the scenes for plot twists I hadn’t planned but loved more than the ones I had planned.

I think the difficult birthings in life are the ones that make what come after worth it. They are the ones we agonize over and persevere through by the grace of God.

I hope you enjoy books 4, 5 and 6. I really do. But remember, without book 3, without Wrestle the Stars, a tale wrestled from my soul, they would not and could not exist.

Therefore, Happy Birthday to my love on this day. And Happy Birthday, on Friday, to the tale that pivots the adventures of the Portal Watchers.

Easter was just a few days ago.

Why is that my start when I’m talking about hearing God? Because most people Jesus interacted with as he walked our soil didn’t really hear him. They heard what they wanted to hear. Or they remembered what they thought they heard. But what was God’s command to those in attendance at the transfiguration?  And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” (Luke 9:35)

Our hearing God is important to God. In the Bible, the past tense, heard is used over 500 times in most translations. The word hear is used over 1,000 times. The word listen adds almost another 500. Many of these references are about God hearing us. One of the earliest, in Genesis, is where Hagar names God the one who hears me because he heard her crying. Then God hears the people crying out in Egypt under their bondage and sends Moses. He hears us over and over again.

But God wants to be heard too.

How do we hear a God who doesn’t speak to us audibly most of the time? Or pretty close to never for most of us in the modern world?

In the words of the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, we get a hint. Over and over in those two books, they cry out for people, the lands, the religious and political leaders, to hear the word of the Lord. At that time, those prophets were relaying God’s new direct word, but they were also reading and quoting the established word. With the finale of Revelation, all of the Bible, all of God’s word is established. So, we, today, need to hear the word of God to hear God.

In the parable of the houses built on rock and sand, Jesus’ takeaway is the ability to hear. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (Matthew 7:24) Oddly enough, both the wise and the foolish are called hearers. What transforms the individual from foolish to wise is putting into practice what was heard.

Such a simple thing, right? Just listen to what God says and then do what God says. But so often, listening and doing is impossibly hard because we tune God out. We let the sound of the world or the sound of our own wants drown out the still small voice.

But we don’t have to. We can listen. We can hear his word and say, Amen, as we step forward into obedience.

The Cry

I have forgotten so much.

What did I strew on this path

That rips my feet into shreds?

Did I always walk so gently

Afraid to crush that which bruises me?

I should have listened.

Instead, I heard what I wanted to.

Freedom, license—what was the difference?

Something important, something true.

But who really knows the truth?

2 Chr. 20:12

Backs against the wall

Cornered, blocked in

No way out.

Impossible situations

Great multitudes of trials

Pain upon pain

Coming up against us.

In our human frailty

The shackles rise

The adrenaline surges

The eyes widen in terror.

Then, perhaps,

They widen enough to see You.

Keep our eyes there

In pleading

In humble weakness.

Nothing remains for us.

We are beyond our abilities.

But not beyond Yours.

Be still, we hear,

And watch the salvation of Your God!

If there’s one thing that can be said about the Tabernacle or the Temple consistently, God called them holy. He said that they were places set apart, dedicated to him, consecrated for worship and that made them sacred.

In the western mind, we think, oh sure, churches are places like that. You have things you do in church and for church and those things are holy. But most of life isn’t. Most of life is regular, ordinary, world-based. Not evil, per se, but not holy.

We create a distinction between the sacred and the profane that isn’t logical or possible.

That’s not to say there isn’t a separation between the two. There definitely is. There just isn’t a separation in the life of one of God’s children. For those who trust in Jesus, every day, all of life, is holy. Every moment is sacred.

Again, the western world likes to compartmentalize. This section of my life, for instance, doing laundry has nothing to do with God. It’s a chore that maintains life; it’s ordinary, not special.

I had an older friend who passed away many years ago who said if she were to write her autobiography, she’d call it, “With God and the Dirty Dishes.” She told me that she did most of her praying while she washed dishes. She pondered the verses she had read in the morning while up to her elbows in suds. She had learned to lean into the holy, wherever she found it.

And, believe it or not, if you believe in Jesus, you can find it everywhere and everywhen that you touch.

Remember how I started off? God called the Tabernacle and then later the Temple as holy. In our post-Resurrection of Jesus world, we are the Temple. We are the Tabernacle.  Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. 1 Cor 3:16-17

If a temple is doing dishes, changing a diaper, or driving in rush hour, it is still a temple. It is still holy. It is still the place God has chosen.

As this time of the year, the week preceding Easter, is called Holy Week, I’d like to challenge that perception that some days are holier than others. Any day that you are alive is a day holy unto the Lord. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Romans 12:1 A living sacrifice is a sacrifice today as well as tomorrow. It is a sacrifice on Tuesday as well as Sunday. And it remains holy throughout.

In the Old Testament, the Tabernacle and the Temple were used every day. (Or at least they were supposed to be when the children of Israel followed the law.) Some celebrations involved more than the daily sacrifices. Some celebrations and festivals had special requirements. But the Temple didn’t become more holy on those days. It was holy no matter what.

That is the same with our lives. We don’t become more holy by celebrating Easter or by fasting during Lent. Not that either is a bad thing. Celebrations are good for the spirit. Fasting is good for the soul. But participation in those events doesn’t increase how holy we are by one iota. We are holy because God is holy and the spirit of God indwells us. We are holy because we have been sealed by the Spirit and by Christ’s sacrificial payment that we honor this week.

He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Ephesians 1:4

What remains of this day for you to live is holy. You may have to ask God to show you how, but it is. Today is holy. It is a holy day for you to live before a holy God.

Knowing that… Rejoice!